Return To The Hellmouth
by Benji The Vampire Confuser
Summary: After nearly a decade since child services took him away, the young man once known as Xander Harris returns to the town he left behind. Alternate 2nd Season
1. Chapter 1

**Return to the Hellmouth**

**by Benji: The Vampire Confuser**

_Everyone belongs to Joss Whedon._

* * *

**Chapter 1**

He stepped off the bus, and took a moment to take it in. Sunnydale. He was back.

Alex Williams, formerly known as Xander Harris, had been born in Sunnydale California. But after one too many dysfunctional events in his household, he'd been taken away by Child Services, and placed in the care of a foster family in Washington DC.

He'd only told two people about what his father was doing. His only friends, Willow and Jesse. He remembered how angry he'd been, how betrayed he'd felt, when Willow told her mother. And when he'd been taken from the only parents he'd known. The last words he'd spoken to his friends, had been in anger. It had taken a while, but he'd finally realized that what Willow had done, she'd done out of concern, and love for her friend. And he'd become grateful to her. For he now thought of his foster family as his real family, though the memory of his original family still lingered. But by the time he'd realized it. It was too late.

His father, who'd been responsible for so much physical and emotional strife in Alex's life, had refused to acknowledge the ruling. And for a long time, Alex feared that his father would one day find him. It was for that reason, that it was deemed best by all concerned, that he have no contact with Sunnydale whatsoever. So he'd been unable to contact his friends, and apologize, and thank them.

His intellect, which, in the educational system of Sunnydale was being squashed by low self esteem, had been allowed to grow in a school with a special ed program. He'd even made the honor roll more than once.

Over the years, thoughts of Willow stayed with him. He wondered how she was, what she looked like as she grew. What she was doing. After three failed relationships, though he'd remained good friends with one of them, he'd realized the truth. He was in love with Willow. And always had been. Though hundreds of miles, and several years without seeing her separated them, he could not get her out of his mind.

So that was why, 11 years later, after his seventeenth birthday, one of his ex-girlfriends had encouraged him to follow his heart. And return from whence he came. She wrote poetry.

And so here he was. Seventeen years old, his wallet filled with money he'd earned from his job at Moto Photo, without his parents consent, or knowledge, though they'd surely found the note by now, in the town of his birth.

He quickly decided against going to see his original parents, though he was tempted to show his father how competent he'd become at defending himself.

Instead, he went to where he figured he had the best chance of finding his old friends. The mall.

* * *

Cordelia paused in her chat with Harmony to look at a couple of passing guys. One in particular caught her eye. He was of average height, and had dark hair. Too bad she'd seen him in a mall, and not the Bronze. She never flirted in the mall.

Alex had been all over the mall twice. And had not found hide nor hair of either of his friends. He decided against going to the school, or to her house. He wasn't ready for that yet. So he decided to try to find out what other hangouts there were. He looked around, and saw two rather trendy looking girls sitting at a table near the food court.

"Excuse me for the interruption ladies." he smiled. He'd found that it was much easier to talk to girls when you weren't interested. He didn't know how he was going to talk to Willow when he finally found her. "I'm new in town." he went on. "And I was wondering if you could tell me where the cool hang outs were."

Cordelia wasn't sure what to make of this guy. He was good looking, but as a new person in town, he had yet to prove himself. On the other hand, what better way to do that then to go to the Bronze?

* * *

That night, Alex sat by himself in the club. It wasn't bad, for a small town club. Nothing to rival the ones he'd been to, but not bad. The band wasn't bad either. Especially the guitarist. He loved the name. Dingoes Ate My Baby. It made him think of homework excuses. My dog ate it.

He didn't see anyone who looked like Willow or Jesse. But after so many years, would he even recognize them? He decided that if he didn't see them tonight, he'd go to the High School tomorrow.

There was a good looking blonde girl who appeared to be on the lookout for someone. Probably her boyfriend or something.

* * *

Buffy spotted a dark-haired boy she didn't recognize sitting by himself, looking around carefully. It could be nothing. But then, it could also be a new Vamp in town looking for dinner. She decided to take a wait and see stance, just in case.

She was looking at him. She was trying not to look like it, but he could tell. He caught her out of the corner of his eye, and twice when he'd glanced in her direction, he'd seen her look quickly away.

He smiled to himself. Most guys would be delighted to have a pretty girl investing this much attention on them. But he wasn't at all interested. He was only there for one girl.

Then he saw someone who looked familiar.

"Jesse?" he said, coming up behind the dark haired boy.

Jesse started. He hadn't heard that voice since it was much higher, many years ago. He turned quickly. "Holy-, Xander?" He laughed, and embraced his old friend. "What the hell are you doing back in Sunnydale?"

Buffy stood when she saw the two men embrace. When they started to leave, she followed them. Something was definitely up.

* * *

"So what's up?" Xander asked. "Why did you have to talk to me out here? 'Fraid my parents will find me?"

"Not exactly." Jesse smiled. And then his face changed. His eyes turned yellow, his brow began to protrude, and his teeth became fangs.

Xander stared in shock for a moment. _Oh my God a vampire!_ he thought. He'd never seen one before, hadn't even believed they existed. But there wasn't much else he could be.

He was ever more grateful for his self defense training at that moment. He dodged quickly when his friend lunged at him. He backed away quickly, trying to think. What killed Vampires? Crosses? Garlic, no, that just hurt them, and besides he didn't have either. Stake through the heart? He didn't have one of those either. He thought about running, but he didn't want to turn his back on Jesse.

So he did the only thing he could think of.

"So Jesse," he said, "Been one of the undead long? Or is this a new thing for you?"

"A year or so." Jesse said, feinting to the left. Alex didn't fall for it. "You still go by Xander?"

"No it's Alex now."

"That's nice, much more respectable. Not as cute though."

Xander shrugged. "I outgrew cute. I'm going for ruggedly handsome now."

"Not doing a half bad job at it either." said a voice behind Jesse.

Alex's eyes widened. The blond girl had followed him outside. "Not loving the timing of this." he told her. "Things are-"

"Slayer." Jesse growled. And ran.

Alex took a moment to relax from his ready to fight or flee position. When he did, he took a deep breath.

"Okay so now I'm really confused." he said. "Why is my best friend from ages ago a Vampire, and why was he afraid of you, and why did he mention an eighties metal band?"

The girl looked like she was searching for an explanation. "Um, that wasn't a Vampire," she said falteringly. "That was, a guy, on PCP."

Alex gave her a look. "Right. Look missy I know from guys on PCP and they don't look like that. Sure they get a little crazy but their faces don't morph into something that looks like it's from Star Trek."

She once again struggled. "Okay so it was a Vampire. But, um,"

"Buffy are you all right?" a deep voice asked from right behind him.

Reflexively, Alex spun, and assumed a ready position. When the guy behind him, who was a fairly big guy, didn't make any threatening moves, he relaxed again.

"Please do not sneak up on me when I've just been attacked in a dark alley!" he admonished.

"Sorry." the guy said, not sounding particularly apologetic. He wasn't looking at Alex at all, still at the blond girl, who Alex was hoping was not REALLY named Buffy. "What's going on?" the tall guy asked.

"There," Alex said, turning and smirking, "Two against one. Now you have to explain."

"It's complicated." Buffy said.

"Vampires are real, lot of them live in Sunnydale, Buffy kills them." the guy said.

"Apparently not that complicated." Buffy sighed. "Okay so are there any other questions? Or can we go back in and try to forget this?"

"Just one more." Alex said. "Willow. Is she a Vampire too?"

Buffy blinked, and felt defensive mode come on. "How do you know Willow?" she asked. "And how do you know from guys on PCP?"

"I know Willow the same way I knew Jesse." Alex answered her. "As for the PCP, sorry to say that I've had a few run ins with the darker side of DC. You gonna answer my question now?"

* * *

"Old friend eh." Spike said, as he and Jesse shared a tall glass of blood. Dru was nearby, talking to one of her dolls.

Spike liked Jesse, the boy reminded him of himself, in his early days. Only been a Vamp for a while, and still getting used to the change. From what he'd heard of the kid's past, he was even a bit like Spike's pre-Vamp days.

"Yeah." Jesse said. "Haven't seen him since we were like, eight or something. I tell ya, if he hadn't recognized me, and said my name, I never would have known it was him."

"Funny how people change isn't mate." Spike smiled.

Jesse grinned as well, knowing Spike wasn't just talking about Xander. Or Alex rather. Jesse doubted he'd ever get used to calling him that.

* * *

Willow greeted Oz with a kiss when the band was finished with their set.

"Have you seen Buffy?" Willow asked. "I just got here, and she was supposed to meet me here."

"Yeah." Oz said carefully. He knew she would always be a little sensitive when it came to the topic at hand. "She went out into the alley. After Jesse."

Willow fell silent. Jesse. When Xander had been taken away by child services, Jesse had been her only friend. And then he too had been taken away from her. Thank God Buffy had been there to take up the mantle of best friend.

"Was it," she started, "Was it bad?"

"I don't know." Oz said. "He was with some guy, they seemed to be good friends. But I didn't recognize him."

"Willow!" Buffy called from across the club. The story this guy Alex had told her was incredible, and she couldn't wait to bring these two old friends back together. Once he'd told her his name, and his old nickname, she'd pretty much known the rest. Willow had told her all about him.

Willow turned to Buffy. Angel was with her, and Buffy seemed really excited about something. She wondered what.

"What's up Buffy?" Willow asked, approaching her friend. "Oz said you went after Jesse. Did you-"

"No he got away." Buffy said. "But you'll never believe who I found-" she turned to look behind her, but Alex was gone.

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Hi Mom. Yeah, I'm fine. I know, I'm sorry, but I had to come. I couldn't keep...hiding. No I promise I'm not going to see them. Or call them. You're my parents now mom, not them. No, no I haven't found Willow or Jesse yet. Okay, yeah I will. I love you too mom."

Alex hung up the phone, and lay back on the bed with a heavy sigh. He'd used his emergency credit card to get a room at a motel that wasn't completely skeevy, and then called home to reassure his foster parents that he was okay.

But was he? He wasn't sure. Not after what he'd seen and experienced tonight. Jesse was a Vampire. Jesse had tried to kill him. It bothered him that he wasn't more bothered. Oh he was very unhappy that Jesse was for all practical purposes dead, but the killing...It had been so long since he'd seen his friend, that they seemed to have grown apart.

And when he'd realized that, he'd suddenly felt a stab of fear, and ditched Buffy before they could find Willow. He wasn't so sure now he'd be able to face her. If he'd felt that way about Jesse, how could expect Willow to feel any closer to him? But that was stupid. He'd known that was a possibility. So why chicken out now? He decided that unless he chickened out tomorrow, he'd go by the school.

In the meantime, he flipped on the TV and flicked through the channels until he found a local news thing. He frowned. The stories seemed mostly about missing persons, and gang violence. Apparently there was a gang around these parts that had attacked the Bronze, and even the High School. The police were looking into a drug connection, possibly PCP.

Given what he'd seen at the bronze tonight, he had to wonder if there was something else going on. For that matter, he started to wonder if much of the violence in DC wasn't supernaturally related.

And that of course drew his gaze over towards his door. Locked, and bolted. And a chair propped under the handle. He didn't know if they could come in uninvited or not, but he wasn't taking any chances.

This was so not what he'd been expecting when he returned to Sunnydale.

* * *

So, this was Sunnydale High School. He remembered it seeming so much more imposing when he was a kid. Of course, he was a lot smaller then. And the world had seemed so much bigger. When you're in elementary school, your world was school, your friends, family, home, and the places you played. Everything else was strange and exotic. Another town might as well be another country.

So naturally the world of High School, with it's cars and larger population would seem like...well like another country.

Now that he was actually in High School, with kids from other countries, and with a driver's license and a part time job (which reminded him, he'd need to call his boss later), the world was a bit smaller. Less exotic.

Actually now that he really looked at it it looked like any number of high schools he'd seen on tv.

He crossed the street cautiously. He wasn't certain, but given the town's death rate, he suspected that like DC Schools, this place would not take too kindly to non-students on campus. He'd timed his visit for when he believed lunch would be. An extra teenager might be less likely to be noticed then.

As he went, he found himself looking at everyone, wondering which ones of them he had known once upon a time. In fact he'd gotten so wrapped up in that, that he completely missed Willow.

She did not miss him however. Of course she had been on the lookout for him as well, and was not distracted by all the other students. "Xander!"

Alex spun, unhappy that he'd been spotted first. He'd really hoped to be the first one to see the other, then he could prepare. Or even chicken out again. "Oof!" Apparently, Willow had not outgrown the glomp phase.

"Uh, hi Willow." Alex said awkwardly. "Uhm, it's Alex these days." He was trying desperately to ignore the fact that Willow's arms were around him, and that her body was pressed against his. He'd been dreaming about this for...well since he'd hit puberty if he was going to be honest with himself.

"Alex?" she said, her brow furrowed. "I don't know if I can get used to that. But you're here! What are you doing here? Where have you been? What have you been doing? Buffy said you saw Jesse are you okay? I mean, of course you're okay because you're here and not in the hospital, and oh my God did you see your parents? You can't go see them because you're dad's still totally scary and I'm so sorry I told your secret but I was scared and you didn't stay away all those years because you hate me do you? Stop laughing."

"I'm sorry." Alex said. "But I've missed that babble."

She smiled, slightly sheepishly, slightly embarrassed, and affectionately.

"I missed that smile too."

She was starting to blush, and then suddenly she disengaged herself. "Oz!"

"Pardon?" Alex frowned, confused. "The Wizard?"

"The me." said a voice. Alex turned, and saw that Willow was looking at a short red haired kid. He also noticed that Willow was now holding the boy's hand. On the one hand, he was hating the boy. On the other, he was glad the boy had showed up before Alex had had a chance to say anything that would have embarrassed him.

"Your name is Oz?"

"Xan...uhm, Alex, I don't know if I'll ever get used to that, this is Oz. My boyfriend."

To Be Continued...


End file.
